


Death to the Supreme Intelligence

by WhiteravenGreywolf



Series: If I stay [54]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: Carol is finally making good on her promise, Cause baby now we got bad blood, F/F, The Supreme Intelligence is still an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 14:37:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18919021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteravenGreywolf/pseuds/WhiteravenGreywolf
Summary: While taking a few hours off Carol is approached by her old Starforce companion Att-Lass. The Kree need Captain Marvel's help. The Supreme Intelligence didn't take too well to the death of half its population, and now it needs to be shut down.





	Death to the Supreme Intelligence

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I found my second wind while writing this story (is that even something you say in English? Your second wind?) Anyway finally a bit of a longer story, hadn't seen one of those in a while.  
> I went to the hairdresser this morning. Got my hair cut like I'm about to blow through Thanos' ship if you know what I mean...  
> Anyway, as usual, I hope you enjoy!

Carol saw the stranger who'd just entered the bar quickly. Monica and she had been seating at a table in the corner, taking a few hours off before flying out to their next mission. The bar was full of travelers, talking loudly in small groups, laughing and getting more and more drunk with every sip of whatever alcohol they were consuming. But this stranger, she noticed just how he and his escort were out of place. She frowned, staring at him, and placed her bottle back down.

  
Their eyes met, and cold lead melted into her chest, before quickly being replaced by fury. Beside her, Monica felt Carol's shift of behavior.

  
"What?"

  
She followed Carol's gaze and looked over at the door. Three men had walked in. Kree men, dressed in black and green, the color of the Starforce. Carol swallowed thickly. She was about to stand up and leave, but Monica placed a hand on her arm to stop her.

  
"If they want trouble, they'll find it. But we were here first and I'm sure as hell not moving."

  
Carol nodded. She kept her eyes trained on the Kree. The stranger, she knew, was no stranger at all. She watched him as he walked up to the bar, and the barman pointed toward her. She gritted her teeth and leaned back in her seat. The Kree walked all the way up to her and stopped beside the empty chair. His escort had remained by the door.

  
"You're a hard woman to find," he said.

  
"How about we cut the civilities and you tell me what you want from me, Att-Lass?"

  
The Kree sat down after taking a glance at Monica. He looked a few years older now, his black hair was shorter and he had started to grow a beard, but she'd recognized him instantly, as soon as he had walked into the bar.

  
"I remember a Vers who liked to joke around before getting down to business."

  
"And I remember leaving you in Mar-Vell's lab, unconscious and pretty beaten up. There was no sign of you or either of the other Kree when we came back. Oh, and my name never was Vers, to begin with."

  
"Yes, I heard. Captain Marvel has been one of our most wanted enemies for over three decades now."

  
Carol picked up her bottle with a smirk. She finished it and placed it back on the table.

  
"Is that why you're here? To take me in?"

  
Att-Lass shook his head.

  
"I'm here because the Kree need your help."

  
Carol shook her head.

  
"Hard pass. I'm here to help the people who really need my help, and the Kree have been off my list since 1995."

  
Att-Lass sighed and leaned back in his chair.

  
"Things have gone downhill since half of our kind disappeared... The Supreme Intelligence is no longer functional. We want to turn it off."

  
Carol frowned in surprise.

  
"Wait, seriously? So what, you want me to turn it off for you or something?"

  
Att-Lass shook his head.

  
"It needs to turn itself off. So many of us have tried to convince it that it was for the good of all Kree, but it overpowered us every time. Plus, a cult has formed around it, they've been blocking access to the Supreme Intelligence and we don't want bloodshed. We've already lost too many people."

  
He looked her in the eyes.

  
"You're the only person I know who has ever overpowered the Supreme Intelligence and broke out of its influence. I convinced the council to give you a chance to turn it off. If you can't, we'll have nothing short of a civil war on our hands."

  
Carol looked away, thinking. Finally, she leaned back in her chair.

  
"Yeah well, like I said, I'm not helping the Kree anymore. Find yourself another amnesiac with superpowers."

  
Att-Lass sighed and stood up.

  
"I understand. If you change your mind, we have a ship at the Astro-port, leaving tomorrow morning. I'm sure you'll have no problem recognizing it."

  
He left the bar with his escort, Carol's eyes never leaving them until the door was closed completely. Beside her, Monica looked at her with concern.

  
"What?"

  
"Really?"

  
Carol rolled her eyes.

  
"I'm not helping them!"

  
"Even if it's to turn off the Kree Supreme Intelligence?"

  
"Yeah, I don't care! I'm not helping the Kree, not after everything they did to me and everything they try to do! They almost flushed your mom out into space!"

  
Monica crossed her arms.

  
"Yeah, almost thirty years ago. I mean, I know you can hold a grudge, I learned quickly not to try and steal food from your plate, but this is ridiculous, don't you think?"

  
"No, it's not. They killed Mar-Vell, they stole me away and erased my memory so they could use me as a weapon against a group of people just looking for a refuge! Can you imagine if I hadn't been there and they'd gotten their hands on the Space stone?"

  
"I thought we were out here to help and protect people. We could stop a civil war from happening! So many innocent people would suffer from a civil war. So maybe, you could set all the bad blood between you and the Kree, just long enough to help them, and then go back to hating them."

  
Carol shook her head vigorously.

  
"We are not helping the Kree."

  
Monica huffed.

  
"It's too bad, cause you finally had a way to make good on your promise."

  
Carol frowned.

  
"What promise?"

  
"You promised you would come for the Supreme Intelligence. Or at least that's how your story goes, you know, the story of how you defeated Yon-Rogg. You loved to tell that story, of how you stuffed him in a pod and told him to tell the Supreme Intelligence that you were coming for it."

  
Carol crossed her arms and looked down as if she were trying to remember ever telling that story. She really didn't want to help the Kree, she didn't. She still had nightmares about the Supreme Intelligence erasing her memory again. She didn't want to go back to Hala, and she didn't want to go anywhere near the Supreme Intelligence. But, Monica was right. If a civil war broke out, many innocents would die, and the Kree, like everyone else, had already lost too many people.

  
She groaned, and decided:

  
"Fine, we're going. But at the first sign of anything fishy, I will destroy the Supreme Intelligence with my bare hands, one brick at a time. And Att-Lass will swallow them all."

* * *

  
  
The ride to Hala was mostly silent. Carol wanted to fly there on her own but she would have arrived before Att-Lass, and he was supposed to bring her back. Both she and Monica had walked into the Starforce ship, and the ship had left toward Hala.

  
When they had finally arrived, after three space jumps, Carol could feel her hands shaking. She hadn't been on Hala since that fateful mission which had brought her back home. They descended onto the city. Monica looked through the cockpit window at the alien world under them.

  
"Which one is the Supreme Intelligence pyramid?" she asked.

  
Before Carol could stand up and point it to her, Att-Lass explained:

  
"You can't see it from here, but you'll get to see it from up close soon enough, don't worry."

  
Carol cleared her throat.

  
"If you could stop saying things that sound vaguely threatening to my daughter, I would be grateful."

  
Monica glared at Carol.

  
"It wasn't a threat," Att-Lass assured, "simply an observation. We're going to need all the help we can get to get you inside that temple."

  
"And you're sure things are not going to blow out of proportion if I turn it off? I mean, who's to say those cult people are not going to try and retaliate?"

  
"We don't. Without the Supreme Intelligence, we've been blind for the first time in millenniums. All we can do it act and hope for the best."

  
Carol chuckled.

  
"Ha! Welcome to the real world."

* * *

  
  
After a quick briefing with the council, they had waited for the dead of night to act. There were cultists everywhere, standing around the temple and occupying the stairs, while soldiers kept an eye on them. Carol wanted to fly in, barricade herself inside and shut the damn thing off. Of course, she'd forgotten that there actually wasn't a door to the building, and she would be extremely visible if she flew in. A sneak attack had been planned instead.

  
Monica was to be the distraction. Her glowing would certainly attract a lot of attention. Carol, Att-Lass and another Starforce trooper sneaked past them and up the stairs to the Supreme Intelligence easily after that. Meanwhile, Monica got locked in a conversation with the cultists, and trying to breathe some sense into them was a lot harder than it looked.

  
The inside of the temple was exactly as Carol remembered it. All angular stones with the stepping stone in the middle, a teal blue hexagon on which she absolutely didn't want to step on.

  
"Alright, Carol," Att-Lass said as he took position at the entrance of the room, keeping an eye out, "do is as quickly as you can."

  
But Carol was not looking at the central platform. Instead, she was passing her hand over the wall at the end of the room. She could feel something cold underneath it.

  
"The Supreme Intelligence is under there, isn't it?"

  
"No one is allowed to witness what the Supreme Intelligence really looks like," Att-Lass whispered back.

  
Carol looked back at him.

  
"You want to turn the damn thing off or not? Then let me do what I do best."

  
Before Att-Lass could stop her, Carol punched through the wall. It broke down easily under her assault, but the noise was bound to attract all of the people outside, who'd probably heard it. Carol didn't wait. She passed through the hole.

  
The room on the other side was dark and the air was vibrating. As Carol walked further down, she saw what looked like mainframes and massive pipes and wires connected to it, and crawling through the room. It was an old dusty nest of cables connecting computers, themselves connected to pipes, through which a greenish liquid was flowing. Carol had to step over them as she continued on her way. A bright green light was coming from the end of the room. It was so bright that, at first, Carol couldn't quite make out what was inside. But the closer she got, the more she understood how they had all been fooled.

  
There was a massive glass tube, three times larger than Carol, bubbling with the same fluorescent green liquid she'd seen before. And inside the tube was a head. Twice as big as the Hulk but the same greenish color, with eyes bright, like two light-bulbs. Tentacles grew out of the head, like hair, and disappeared at the top of the tube. Carol was stunned for a second, silent as she contemplated what had incited thousands of major conflicts and the death of billions of people in the past few millenniums. A head in a jar.

  
"Alright, are you like a goldfish?" Carol wondered as she looked around, searching for the off switch, "Can you swim outside of your aquarium or if I just put salt in it that will kill you just as fast?"

  
But before she could start pulling on everything, the head suddenly spoke. Its deep voice gave chills to Carol.

  
"How dare you intrude in my sanctum! You will be executed for that!"

  
"Yeah, no, no one is going to execute me for retiring you, trust me."

  
She got a hold of the nearest tube, ready to pull the plug on the monster, but it spoke again, this time with a voice she hadn't heard in a very long time.

  
"I remember you, Vers. You escaped me once. I had been waiting for you to come back."

  
Mar-Vell's voice echoed in the room. Carol took a deep breath. She pulled on the pipe and it broke down, spewing green liquid everywhere on the ground

  
"Oh yeah, waiting for what? Waiting for me to put you down? Cause that's what's about to happen."

  
She went over to the other pipe, ready to pull it out. Still, the head continued.

  
"I remember your pain when they brought you here. All of the memories I had to lock away, to make sure you would comply. They are still a part of me now."

  
"I took them back. There's nothing you can do. I am out of your reach."

  
Carol pulled the second pipe. More liquid soaked the stone floor. Carol quickly went over and pulled the third one out. Just one more and she hoped the damn thing would shut up.

  
"I've changed since you last saw me. And I'm not so easy to manipulate anymore."

  
Carol placed her hands around the last pipe. The head spoke again. She froze. That voice.

  
"Are you sure? You are a part of me Vers, like every Kree to have ever lived and ever died."

  
That voice.

  
"Our people have already lost so much. Why would you take me away from them too?"

  
That voice.

  
"They need me, Vers. They need me to show them the way to a better future. They need me to see the people they have loved and lost. Would you be so cruel as to take away the last person who can help them remember those who are gone?"

  
Maria.

  
"Help me, Vers. Help me make the Kree the glorious Empire it was always destined to be."

  
Carol gritted her teeth and pulled on the last pipe.

  
"My name is Carol. I told you before."

  
"You will always be Vers to me."

  
Carol looked at the massive tube, where the head was still floating. The liquid inside wasn't draining, and the head was still looking at her.

  
"I am not your slave anymore! I am not who you made me become! Now shut up and die!"

  
"You will always be Vers. You will always be that scared weak human we found. Without us, you are nothing, and you have become nothing."

  
Carol screamed in rage as her glowing fist collided with the tube. It broke under her hand. Green liquid flooded the room as if a dam had been broken. Carol stood firm. When the torrent had passed and caused a power surge in the computers in the room, the head was left at the bottom of the tube, agonizing. Its massive mouth opened and closed as if it were gasping for air. Carol stood over it, glaring down at it with all her rage.

  
"So you are a goldfish after all."

  
She turned around and walked away as cultists and Starforce members alike came running into the room, only to find a dying head in a broken tube, and Captain Marvel drenched in green liquid.

* * *

  
  
It took three showers to get the green liquid out of her hair, but there really wasn't anything that could be done for her Starforce suit. Carol thought it was poetic, for it to accomplish its last mission by killing the thing that had given it to her in the first place. When she walked out of the bathroom, Monica was waiting for her, seating on her bed.

  
"How are you doing?"

  
"I don't smell like acetone anymore, so, there's that."

  
Carol sat down on the bed in the room she'd been given – it was the exact same one she'd occupied for six years – and sighed longly.

  
"Is everyone pissed that I killed the giant head?" she asked.

  
"Well, you're not in jail, so there's that. There's not pissed, they just wished you'd followed orders."

  
Carol smirked.

  
"I guess no one ever told them I don't do following orders well."

  
"You do when it suits you," Monica agreed with a smile.

  
Carol moved back on the bed until her back was against the wall.

  
"You know I almost stepped on the damn thing," Carol started. "I wanted to see if I would still see Mar-Vell or if it had changed."

  
"Changed to who?"

  
Carol shrugged.

  
"Steve. Tony. Nat. Fury. Maria."

  
Monica remained silent.

  
"I get why these people didn't want to turn it off. They would see someone they'd lost, that's a treasure. I would sell my soul for that."

  
"We all would."

  
There was a knock on the door, and Carol pushed herself off of the bed. She went to the door. Att-Lass was standing there, with two new Starforce suits in his hands.

  
"The council has elected not to execute you."

  
"Oh wow, good on them I suppose."

  
Att-Lass handed the two suits to Carol.

  
"This is a gift, to thank both of you for helping us. Since yours has been permanently damaged..."

  
Carol frowned.

  
"No, I don't... I don't need a new Starforce suit, really."

  
"These are our newest model, actually. Better than the one you've been using."

  
"It's a suit," Carol noted.

  
Monica appeared from over her shoulder and snagged both suits.

  
"Well if you don't want yours I can keep it, don't worry."

  
She disappeared into the bathroom with both suits. Carol sighed.

  
"Are we free to leave?"

  
"As soon as you want, we can take you wherever you wish."

  
Carol shook her head.

  
"We'll just see ourselves out, don't worry."

  
"Well, in that case, thank you again for your help, Captain Marvel."

  
Att-Lass smiled and turned around, ready to leave. Carol pursed her lips than called her back:

  
"Hey, Att-Lass!"

  
He looked back at her.

  
"What happened to Yon-Rogg, after I sent him back?"

  
"He was disgraced but he continued to fight. He was sent to stop Ronan when the peace with Xandar was signed. Ronan killed him and his entire squad."

  
"Hm... So he's not locked up somewhere where I can taunt him?"

  
"Fortunately for him, no."

  
Carol shrugged.

  
"Too bad."

  
Att-Lass disappeared into the elevator and Carol closed the door behind her. A few seconds later, Monica emerged from the bathroom, her own bodysuit discarded for this new Kree suit, black and white, her usual coat still on her shoulders.

  
"Now this is what I'm talking about! A real suit that won't get torn apart easily."

  
Carol seemed hesitant to agree.

  
"I bet it's still not flerken-proof."

  
Monica sighed.

  
"Whatever. Just go get changed so we can leave this yellow planet."

  
Carol walked into the bathroom, the door closing behind her. Her suit was laying on the sink. This one seemed to have the inverted colors of the previous one. Blue neckline and shoulder pads rather than red, most of the body itself was red, with blue gloves and a belt. Dark blue lines ran over it where gold had once been. There was still plenty of gold, however, like the star in the middle with two lines running on either side, just like on her previous costume. It was both fresh and familiar.

  
"Hey Monica," she called through the bathroom door. "Did you pick the color for me?"

  
"Yeah, picking your colors is my job, remember? I'm the only one with any sort of fashion sense around here. Do you like it?"

  
Carol smiled as she picked up the suit.

  
"Yeah, yeah I like it."


End file.
